Building the LTER Network Information System

NIS History, Then and Now YearMilestone 1993 – 1996NIS vision formed by Information Managers (IMs) and LTER Network Office (LNO) 1997 – 2003Network databases developed and populated by LNO and IMs 1999 – 2002Metacat and Ecological Metadata Language (EML) developed by community, including LNO and IMs 2003EML adopted by LTER Network; NIS Advisory Committee (NISAC) appointed by LTER Coordinating Committee 2004NIS lead scientist hired by LNO; LTER Data Catalog developed at LNO 2005NIS Strategic Plan completed by NISAC and LNO 2007Cyberinfrastructure Strategic Plan completed by IMs and LNO 2008LNO develops Provenance Aware Synthesis Tracking Architecture (PASTA) out of EcoTrends technical development 2009LNO awarded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds for core NIS development 2010NIS project and development plans outlined in LNO Operational Plan

NIS Mission Statement “… to promote advances in collaborative and synthetic ecological science at multiple temporal and spatial scales by providing the information management and technology infrastructure to increase: availability and quality of data from LTER sites timeliness and number of LTER derived data products knowledge generated from the synthesis of LTER data” Bottom line: 1.Make LTER data available in a consistent format through a single web portal 2.Provide derived and value-added data for community use 3.Provide tools for data discovery and evaluation

NIS Ingredients Site collected data and metadata Middleware (software) developed at LNO or integrated from other sources (e.g., sites, open source projects) Internal value-adding applications leading to derived data and metadata products Data modules from other LTER science initiatives (e.g., ClimDB/HydroDB, EcoTrends) External value-adding applications

NIS middleware (PASTA) Site data and metadata External value adding applications LTER Network Information System

Middleware (PASTA)

LNO Operational Plan Spells out operational steps to develop NIS Formalizes multiple pathways for communication and feedback Establishes a timeline involving multiple development cycles with frequent releases Emphasizes engagement by LTER scientists

NIS Development Timeline Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4Q1Q2Q3Q4 Production Deployment Full features Operational Prototype Complete prototype but only partial functionality Start of Development Incremental release Transition to maintenance Development will be both iterative and incremental

Completing the NIS requires involvement from a broad cross-section of LTER members Tiger Teams – to provide community dialogue and rapid feedback as part of specific component development teams Requests for Comments – to receive thoughtful written comments from individuals or groups in the stakeholder community Focus Groups - to get focused feedback on specific components Surveys – to assess bi-directional communication effectiveness IM Working Groups – will provide design, specification, and development on specific tasks and sub-components Research Working Groups – will provide design and specification on derived data products NISAC – will provide advise and evaluation on the NIS LTER Executive Board – will provide endorsement and evaluation

Tiger Teams Roles & Responsibilities 2-3 individuals Information Managers Scientists Graduate Students Scope of work Direct input to requirements and design Intermediate and final acceptance testing of software Commitment 4-8 months A couple of hours per week Rapid feedback “Referring to a team set up solely in response to a specific situation or problem, without considering any wider or longer-term issues.” - Wikipedia